By Debra J. Saunders
Thursday, October 04, 2012
There are a lot of differences between Obamacare and
Romneycare, even though President Barack Obama said that the two plans were
based on an "identical model" during the first presidential debate in
Denver on Wednesday night.
"We've seen this model work very well," Obama
said, "in Massachusetts."
Wrong, countered Mitt Romney. As Massachusetts governor,
he passed a health care plan "on a bipartisan basis."
President Obama, said Romney, "instead of bringing
America together," rammed through a bill that garnered no support across
the aisle. "Something this big, this important," Romney concluded,
"has to be done on a bipartisan basis."
Note this: Romney had to work with Democrats. They
constituted 87 percent of the Massachusetts Legislature. In Obama's first two
years in the White House, Democrats controlled the House and enjoyed a
filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. Obama was able to pass his bill
without courting GOP votes. Still, it was a poor choice with consequences.
Obama sulked that his plan was based on a Republican
idea. It begs the question, Why did he fail to win a single Republican vote?
If he cannot sell Republicans on what he says is a GOP
idea, what good is he?
Obamacare and Romneycare are not identical. They are very
different. Romney worked to promote flexibility; Obama and the Democrats
imposed uniformity. Romney worked to limit mandates in Massachusetts health
care; Obama and a Democratic Congress threw a host of goodies, such as an end
to copayments for "preventive care," into the Affordable Care Act.
Employers will have to pay for service for which workers used to chip in.
This administration has refined passing the hat. With
Congress, the president enacted mandates -- "free" birth control,
adult children's being able to stay on their parents' plans up to age 26 -- for
which Washington pols do not have to pay. They don't even have to pretend that
Congress will have to pay in the future. The private sector pays.
"If you've got health insurance," Obama said of
his plan, "it doesn't mean a government takeover."
It's a government takeover without government fiscal
responsibility.
Early in the debate, Romney quipped that Obama seems to
have levied an "economy tax." Well put. What employer wants to hire
new workers when that employer knows that Washington pols know that they can
add new mandates at no cost to themselves?
Even before Obamacare goes into full effect, it's clear
that this model cannot, as the president promised, "get the cost down so
it's more affordable." That's not mathematically possible.
Now that everyone knows that Washington can find services
dear to politically important demographic groups and make other people pay for
them, there is no controlling health care costs.
No comments:
Post a Comment